J&K is well on the path of reaping the benefits of expansion of information technology, especially in educational area from where the State and the country draw new generations of information savvy technocrats. We need to keep pace with all branches of information technology since it has become a powerful instrument of dissemination of knowledge that transcends physical boundaries and long distances.
Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot was in town to preside over a function at the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIEIT) Campus, University of Jammu where he launched the e-Content of Course in Computer Concepts in Dogri language. This launching will immensely help in propagating Dogri language, its right idiom and service to its literature. This is one way of how the fast growing information technology in our country will serve our cultural heritage. There could be more aspects, and in due course of time, these will also get explored. It is gratifying to know that Mr. Sachin Pilot will be taking personal interest in providing all possible facilities to the Jammu University in the expansion of information technology services. The Pilot family has special relationship with J&K. Rajesh Pilot, the late father of Sachin, and a Union Minister, had special interest in Kashmir and was said to have been deeply involved in conducting covert talk with the militant and separatist groups in Kashmir to find a solution of Kashmir turmoil. Death laid its icy hand on him when he was in the prime of his youth. However, his son, retaining his father’s seat in Parliament, did not lose the sight of J&K State and kept himself fully in touch with the development in the State. As such, the State can rightfully claim it has a good friend and well-wisher in the Union Council of Ministers.
A number of questions were put to him by the media persons and he reacted with the responsibility of a mature politician. He made no bones in telling the media persons that although the Union Government did want that J&K should be provided the same facilities and benefits of communication and information technology as any other state of the Indian Union, yet his ministry was not considering immediate lifting of ban on pre-paid Short Message Services (SMSs) in Jammu and Kashmir. The ban on pre-paid SMSs was imposed in April 2010 on the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs as national security demanded the step to be taken. Evidently, the militants were misusing the facility provided for the convenience of ordinary people. The MoS was candid in conceding that the instructions of the MHA could not be by-passed because national security was involved. It is rue that banning of prepaid SMSs causes difficulties for ordinary people but national security is of far more importance than individual rights. MoS are right in saying that the Government wants to extend facilities to the people but the instructions of Home Ministry cannot be overlooked.
Telecom department has expanded fairly well in the State and now mobile phone services are easily available to the consumers even in remotest places. The pace of progress may be slightly less than what we expected. Nevertheless, the expansion is going on. More communication towers will be built to improve the quality of communication. Special care is taken that communication system over mountain ranges does not get disrupted. The MoS told reporters that 90 crore people in the country had mobile phones and this reflected significant improvement in our communication system. India is a developing country and a vast market for dissemination of information technology. For J&K in particular, a state with high stakes in tourism, connectivity is of vital importance. No Government would like to impose curbs on free flow of information through electronic media, but the constraints of national security cannot be brushed aside. We fervently hope that SMS service will be resumed by the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology as soon as clearance from the MHA is obtained.
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